Woke up this morning and checked Soccernet. As usual in the morning, i was feeling quite groggy and almost tripped when reaching out for the 'On' switch. So, i reached for my chair next and waited for my cranky com to load soccernet. So...the pictures load. Alan Smith celebrating a goal. Ok...this prob meant that Roma lost, which is fine since they have a lousy away form anyway. Then, the score. I kan swear i nearly swallowed my toothbrush when i saw the score. 7-1!!!! OMG, WTF is Roma doing? This kind of scoreline i thought is only possible in FM only. I went and double check with other sites and omg it is really 7-1. AGAINST AS ROMA!!! Then i checked Valencia vs Chelsea... ok not too unpredictable 2-1. But Man U sure rampaged through the Roma defence, with Michael CARRICK scoring a brace. I mean... seriously he must have been on drugs lor, perhaps pentazemin? But one thing's for sure, if he keeps up this form he may well shut the critics who once ridiculed his worth and price tag up for good. The worst thing is, i missed the match last night cos i overslept. Kan, now have to watch replay liao.

E, kan sian now. Tomorrow is enlistment date. The inevitable. If i kan get into a section where no one talks bout soccer or FM then i'm dead. I can already imagine how the situation will go. Out of the 13 ppl, i will be the only one who doesnt talk bout DOTA or counterstrike, and ultimately i got ostracised. This is the worst case scenario. I dun mind if they talk bout one piece or bleach, but i watch naruto until chunnin exam only(eh cos i dun like to watch kids fight...no offense to naruto fans but that's just my personal preference.). But one piece this kind of topic won't last 2 days de, so after tt will really flop and die in loneliness.

My Deuter bag is 30 litres, but it is already exploding with stuff le. My mom insists tt i bring one toilet paper roll, in case i lao sai then 2 toilet rolls cannot tank for 2 weeks. As usual my Po Chai Pills went with me wherever i go, and i brought a lot of crap stuff lah, basically. I'm sure i'll draw stares when i enter the MRT lor, they will think i'm going Amazing Race or sth then stuff everything tt can last me for 2 mths. But heck! If i dun bring excess it is I who will suffer, so might as well be safe than sorry. Actually to think BMT is like going with chalet, with less sleep, lack of aircon, a lot of mosquitoes, no door bathroom, train until tap exercise regime and lots and lots of shaved guys, and not-so-gd-but-better-compared-to-last-time food. Just when i thot i was ready, i heng got chat with my fren on MSN, who told me to bring underwear. LOL, i bring everything but never bring lai kor. Imagine wearing one undy for 2 weeks, 7 days wear one side then flip other side to wear for the next 7 days, lol. Liddat wanna avoid infection also v hard, later got burning sensation while peeing due to PI. I also hope my company got white horse and fat ass like me, so wanna flop IPPT can flop together. Liddat say like a bit no honour and cowardly, then confirm my sis will kb that we NS guys supposed to protect the country and defend dunno what crap. Comeon lor, other country use one nuke on us we sink le, i can do 6 pullups also cannot deflect the nukes right? Even if we dun talk bout superpowers, countries like Indonesia ban sand import we also half dead le lor, still defend what fk? In case you readers dun know, we are surrounded by neighbouring countries that are predominantly occupied by Muslim populations. If one pia war with us, they confirm all-for-one de. Then south east asia will tur out to be like WWE Royal Rumble, you think you can keep out the invasion if all the guys can do 6 pullups arh? You think our air force and navy is shen tong guang da meh? Unless we seek aid from UN, if not we also kena pwn and floored. So, do 6 pullups and having an army is all for show and deterrence nia, tell them not to mess with us becos we can stand up to them for a while and delay some time for the email to reach UN and give time to let them make a decision(usually about 1 month lar, maybe longer...). then military assistance will come or they will establish trade ban or boycott then we win liao lor. Simple.(This is only my opinion hehe.)
Anyway IMO the standard of training here v slack de, then if still got ppl fail IPPT then it shows a lot bout the str of our infantry. So this time go in i'll treat it like a chalet-cum-gym lesson, help me shed weight lor since i also not much discipline to go exercise. Enlistment should be quite fun lar, unless the above worst case scenario occurs, or worse i meet muggers who are super fit and dunno anything besides mugging and exercising. Then dead. Then of cos i hope tt i will not meet the "good frens" there lah, cos i don't really socialise de and will prob fake death if i meet them.

Eh food for thought while i'm away for 2 weeks, the size of a Shinigami's Zanpakuto is not an accurate reflection of his strength and ability, so does this apply to men too, with regard to their maliness and their ... size. Lol, be back in 2 weeks time!

johannkrizalid blogged @ 10:54 AM

Finally taking some time off to blog after a hectic weekend. I ain't sure how other ppl spend their Good Friday, maybe going to church or hanging out with their friends. But, for non-Buddhists you might not know that last friday was Guanyin-ma's birthday. Since i was about to enlist, and after hearing tales of hao3 peng2 you3 in the army schools, i decided that i should seek Guanyin-ma's blessings. So, on a not-so-fine Friday morning, i set off towards the Guanyin temple located at Sima road near Bugis. That's where the "excitement" begins.

To all my readers and visitors who have chanced upon this blog, let me warn you that you have to be prepared when a big day such as Guanyin-ma's birthday clashes with a public holiday. The temple is flooded with ppl, so much so that I took 10 minutes just to reach the gate from the pavement. Ppl were pushing one another, aunties trying to sneak in by the exit point and was caught by security guards etc. Yes, you heard right, security guards. They actually hired security to quell the chaotic situation, but it didn't seem to help a bit. I was sweating buckets before i even had my joss sticks lit. Nevertheless, my mom was helping my cut a path across the crowd, and we managed to slowly inch towards the altar and the vases to offer the flowers and get amulets of blessing. The effects of the amulet was immediate. You know, ppl usually see chio-bus at Orchard Road and Siloso Beach, but i tell you, i saw girls that could have easily made it to FHM magazine. Not that they are sexy, but they are so chio until you melt. I am not that kind of guy who ons their radar all the time and keep a look out of pretty gals, but seriously i dun even need to on my radar that day lor; my radar is probably flooded with red dots with even me making a conscious effort to search. Talk about blessings eh?

Went with my mom and sis to Bugis Junction to eat lunch afterwards. My sis recommended the Crystal Jade Macau Restaurent, so we obliged since we dun really have an opinion. Being the usual me, I would get lost in Orchard, so asking me where the good eateries are located is not much of a use. Anyway, we ate the Pumpkin Apple Baked rice and Pumpkin Soup, which were delicious. This from someone who doesn't really like pumpkins all that much is a great great compliment, and i have a great lunch despite the hefty bill that proved hard to swallow after all the gobbling. The fish there aint that great though they were fresh, and the cuttlefish was a tad too oily and proably taste like Calbee Prawn crackers. 60+ dollars for 4 dishes, a bit owning but for restaurent dining no one can really argue that it is over the top.

So after the lunch my sis, my mom and I went to granny's. The visit was okay, and probably the last before i enlist. Found out that my granny fell during a trip out and it was so bad that it left a visible scar on her face. Then my sis commented that females in our family always fall down and end up in a pretty bad shape. I didn't know whether to laugh or to pity them, probably a mix of both. Sad humor i guessed? My grandpa was as usual, smoking occasionally using his smokepipe, which irritated me and almost provoked a violent response from me as i was 100% non-smoke tolerant, it just makes my windpipe feels dry and i felt suffocated. But as he was my grandpa, i guessed he deserves respect from me, so i just kept my mouth shut and went to the window to get some fresh air. We stayed and chatted for 2,3 hours before we left in a taxi. My sis was telling me that my aunt called my granny and scolded her. The truth is my uncle intended for his children to visit my granny, but my aunt had made plans to eat dinner at the children's granny place, so she waited there for my uncle but he didn't turn up for one reason or another. Then, like all po2 si2 relations, tensions rise and war broke out. My aunt accused my grandma for forcing(or persuading) my uncle to bring the kids over to her place, when in actual fact my grandma was not involved in this shit at all. After hearing this i was pensive and after a while told my sis that i would never get a partner/wife like this because this is in fact a small matter and could be settled amicably. Given the fact that my uncle works for almost 7 days a week bringing home the bread, he shouldn't have to be bothered by trivial things like this. In fact, they could have planned for visits to either granny's at alternate weekends. In this kind of situation, i would have wanted my wife to settle this peacefully instead of calling my mother and bitch when she is not in the wrong and it was all miscommunication. Besides, my aunt's mother used to dislike her grandchildren from visiting as she finds it troublesome, but now when she's doing the opposite she wants others to comply to her wishes regardless of pre-planned schedule.
I mean, WTF, my aunt is really damn kb, this kind of small matter also wanna blow up and say until no one respects her and her mom. Bitch.

Anyway, the whole saga wasn't my damn business, so i just let it go. Back to FM schedule. Got kb by my elder sis again for being too obsessive, but heck. Anyway, i think Man U is really rigid and needs serious rebuilding. My 4-2-3-1 couldn't work on them, predominantly because the players esp the defenders couldn't pass properly, so there was no smooth flow in attack and build up of momentum. But i must commend them on that they really have a pretty solid defence. I always thought of Rooney as a Totti in his early twenties, but apparently he could not fit into my tactical system as an AMC. So much for being Totti eh? So after many unsuccessful attempts at trying to mould Man U to fit my ideology, i called my friend and i asked his opinion. He told me that in his opinion Rooney is the brute force type that charges at defenders and plays the role of a link-up man between the midfield and the striker, and less of a playmaker since his passing weren't all that great. I thought about it for a while and found some sense in what he said. Rooney's worth is the dynamism he brings into Man Utd's play. He is like a livewire that injects energy and swings the momentum in his favour when he see the chance. But while it is easier theoratically to pick out his strengths, it is difficult in practise to bring out the best in him. Personally, i believe that Rooney's main weakness is his lack of aerial prowess, and defenders can easily isolate him if they can cut out the passes and pick out aerial balls. While this may seem to be difficult, Rooney's goal tally this season has reflected on his relatively quiet season, and his occasional frustrations are betrayed in his body language when he could not get the breakthrough. Hence Ronaldo is needed to unlock the defences with his dribbles and play the ball to Rooney's feet.

While, in reality Ronaldo seems to be fitting in well as a right midfielder or left midfielder, ingame it is very different. I dun know if his ineptness at MR position is removed in the latest patch, but in version 7.0.0 his form takes a dip when players play 4-4-2. This doesnt mean that he is lousy in 4-4-2, it just means that you can't bring out the best in him in 4-4-2. Hence, a formation while uses AMRs and AMLs is needed, hence 4-2-3-1. But, this in turn brings down Rooney's form, as he is definitely not cut out to be a lone striker, despite his scoring form currently. Playing Rooney as a lone striker would be a waste to his excellent teamwork stat, hence a contradiction arises. It becomes evident after a while that it is almost impossible to accommodate the two wonderkids in a system which brings out the best in both of them. I am still trying to fugure out how to do so, and i will update as soon as possible once i have figured everything out. 4-3-3 seems a good bet, but much is left to be seen. Until then, byebye.

johannkrizalid blogged @ 11:47 AM

Like all managers, i have an insatiable desire to clinch the quadruple. Back to back titles in 3 seasons had pushed me to Hall of Fame glory with Aston Villa, but i am still thirsty for more. Today is the 4Th of April, 8 days before enlistment date. Then it will be 2 more weeks before i can fm again. I can't wait this long. So, before i go, i'm gonna perform my magic once again. One more of each title, as a farewell gift.

Speaking of titles, i really can't stand the likes of Chelsea. They, in my opinion, play football with too much pragmatism. Really, the anti-thesis of Arsenal. Can you imagine playing at Stamford Bridge and they came up with a 4-1-2-2-1 formation? I mean like, WTF, this is your home game and you are trying to put 7 players behind the ball and try to counter with only Shevchenko, Robben and Pandev(they bought him from lazio i think with 76M USD.) But, like typical Chelsea, they are hard to break down and it took me a few tries and tactical reshuffling before i can beat them. Having 2 midfielders and a defensive midfielder meant that they zero in on my strikers before they could even dribble. Flooding the midfield also meant that there is no way my midfielders could create space to pass the ball out to the flanks to start a counterattack.
Superb defence and rapid closing down, along with lightning fast dribblers like Robben completed the worst rout in Aston Villa history, 0-4.

Ok, so maybe there's something wrong with the way i choose my midfielders. So i began shuffling. I began with a 4-4-2 with a DMC and an AMC. Lost 2-0. 4-3-3, with N'Zogbia, Moore, Okaka. Got thumped 3-1. By then i was losing it alr, so rational thinking and analysis gave way to random shuffling and playing the probability game. 4-1-2-2-1, flop. Then when i was about to throw in the towel, I thought maybe reverting back to 4-4-2 will be best. Put in Christian Poulsen and Sunny(a Nigerian DMC wonderkid) to mark out Raul Garcia and Frank Lampard. Send in Gabriel Agbonlahor(pace, acc=20) and N'Zogbia(pace=17 dribbling=18) for pure pace and speed. Slot in Okaka as a target man with good aerial ability and Luke Moore as an explosive striker with pace=19. Put in Gareth Bale for free-kick taking and Nedum Onuoha for his pace and tenacity. Anchor Gijs Luirink(formerly from AZ Alkmaar) for his passing and heading and Gary Cahill to partner him. The one between the posts will be Oscar Ustari, commanding GK and stunning technical skills. Then voila, at half time it was 3-0. But knowing the likes of Chelsea, you can never write them off at half time. When the second half started, i continue to flood their defence with passes and goal attempts, and all the while trying to let my team maintain goal possession. Eventually, Chelsea's squad lost morale and they never recovered from 3-0. Whent the final whistle went, i heaved a sigh of relief. Luck, tactics, coupled with the fact that the game's best midfielder Michael Ballack was out injured and Drogba was nursing his wounds on the bench, we came back with a fortuitous victory. Okaka was named his 6th man of match in 9 games and rightfully so with his heading ability. By then i was too tired to think straight and it was already 11+ at night, so i concluded the game by praising my players and raising their morale for their next game ahead of Everton at Villa Park.

BTW, i once comtemplated of playing using Man Utd. So i started a new user, and i took a look at the squad. I stared at the squad line-up for 5 minutes, wondering to myself how a team like this could challenge for the Premier League title. Kudos to Alex Ferguson for making them leaders currently in EPL(in reality, not in fm). I mean, this team is full of junk players and old ah-peks. Nevertheless, i started to clear out the junk. I sold Kieran Richardson to Portsmouth at half price for 5.5M USD.That meant that i lugi USD5M. Then I decided that Fletcher had to go he's not good enough at 22 yrs of age. My theory is that if you dun look promising at 22, you wun look any better at 25 or 28 or 32, and for a big club like the Red Devils, that's a hell of a problem. I kept Park Ji-sung, partially cos he is a marketable figure and also because he has pace, although i must say his technical aspects are crap. I sold Silvestre while his worth is still respectable, and out goes O'shea and Wes Brown too. That leaves a core squad of Smith, Saha, Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs, Scholes, Solksjaer, Ferdinand, Vidic, Heinze, Evra, Neville, Pique, Rossi, Carrick. But i soon realised that the problem with Man U goes deeper. As a manager, i emphasized a lot on the quality of the staffs and coaches, and as expected, Man U's best were all concentrated on youth development. So, reassignment and purchase of top-class coaches are top of my priority. In came Giampiero Ventrone(my assistant at Roma in Fm2005, widely considered to be one of the best Asst Mgr along with Pako Ayesterian and Pat Rice and whathaveyous.) In came Wally Downes from Reading as Defense Coach. A couple of signings from holland and germany completes the puzzle. The second problem is a huge one. As mentioned by Sir Alex in one of his many press conferences, Man U desperately need a midfield anchor, a Roy Keane of sorts. So, i began scouting. I shortlisted Christian Poulsen, Ayila Yussuf, Micah Richards(who told me he can be gotten for 8M?) and others. Owen Hargreaves looks weak technically and not up to standard, while Mascherano can't deal with aerial threats. With 45M gathered from sale of players, i realised that it is still not enough. So someone has to go. I sold Ferdinand to Chelsea for 35M and Saha to Marseille for 15M. That leaves me close to 90M. Now the work starts. In came David Villa, Micah Richards. Richards will play as DM, while Villa ST. The work is done and now my squad looks more like a title contender. Transformation complete. ( will blog more on Man U as i play.) Till then, byebye.

johannkrizalid blogged @ 11:39 AM

Wah yesterday's Man U vs Blackburn was one hell of a kan. In the first half Man U looked toothless and rued a lot of chances. Then Vidic pwn3d himself by landing awkwardly and broke his collarbone. I was watching the match and thinking if the ominous feeling of Chelsea lifting the trophy was to come true. Shortly after, due to a Wes Brown-van der Sar combi blunder, it allowed Matt Derbyshire to hit a sucker punch by scoring that scrappy, totally no skill goal. By that time i was shouting so loud that i got kb by my dad and a half asleep mom. Not totally unexpected, tempers flared and rooney was just a tad away from unleashing his limit break. But the really unexpected happened. Just when Chris Foy blew the whistle during a foul, Ferdinand was with the ball, and i guessed he just lost it. He zam the ball towards the home audience and knocked out an old lady with a shot. OMGWTFLOL!!! The old lady was like she was half dead, apparently unconscious and needing medical attention more so than Vidic lol. Then Mr Rio Ferdinand turned and waved his hand to signal his apology. LOL. He heng that lady is Man U fan lor, if she is Blackburn fan arh, Rio would be in deep trouble. Tomorrow, the tabloid will shoot him until he tap out.

Anyway, i was damn suay also. I watched the first half, got super sian and went to play FM instead. When my Aston Villa drew with Newcastle, i took a break and come out of the room to pee. I saw the score. 0-1. I pee, come out. score:0-1. Then, I go and cook kimchi noodle. Before i boil water, i check the score. 0-1. I thot this time Man U tio own le, so i switched to other channel and watched MTV instead. After around 3 minutes, my kettle sounded. I switched back to channel 23. Score:0-1. I went and pour the boiling water into the instant noodle bowl, and just when i was about to bring the bowl in, i hear my cock neighbour shout GOAL. Kan. I knew i missed sth. I immediately rushed back and watch, Scholes was already celebrating his goal. Kan x10. I watched replay and see him cut through 3 defenders like they were kids, and it was then that i knew he upped the game. He shift gear le, pure inspiration and magic from the 32 year old. I bet if it were C.Ronaldo, he would have fallen in the penalty box and called for a penalty. But not Scholes. Scholes, like giggs from the golden era of Man U academy, knew what he had to do, and he did it with composure and style. He took on his markers like a man, and scored like a man. What a gear shift, what a goal. He opened Man U's floodgates, and eventually the score was 4-1. This is what i mean by a playmaker, a key player. He dictates the tempo, he turns the game around, he leads the team and strengthens them when they are a goal down. What a man, what a goal.

johannkrizalid blogged @ 12:05 PM

johannkrizalid blogged @ 4:40 PM

Ok, i was working on my analysis on England's languid displays in continental competitions when my com crashed and 1 hour of analysis report gone. Fine, you stupid hard drive, you win. But like any great managers in the modern game, i dun give up. So i shall start all over again, because of a f***ing hard disk crash.

If you are an England supporter donning the England Umbro jersey with either Gerrard or Lampard enscribed at the back, you must be scratching your head and wondering wtf happened to a team brimming with talents and home to wondrous players like the duo mentioned above. Well, IMO it boils down to the manager. End of story. No matter how much the players try to vindicate the coach and how the press tries to make players and manager alike in shouldering the blame, we as audience knows that at the end of the day, the real culprit is Steve McClaren. Suddenly, the one whose nickname is "the Magnificent" isn't so magnificent anymore.


As anyone who knows me well, like my FM buddies, i've always preached on one fact, and that is a countryman should never manage his own country's national team. Perhaps i would be hanged if i had blurted this out in public ten years ago, but it certaily makes sense in contemporary football. Besides Lippi and Domenech, managers such as Marco Van Basten, Luis Aragones and Carlos Alberto Perreira have certainly proven themselves to be flops. Well, they have a new addition to their group of superflops, and this man is certainly chillin on his throne as the King of the Flops. He is the ex manager of boro, steve mcclaren.

There are many reasons why a countryman should not manage his national football team. First of all is bias, and this is proven in the case of van Basten. Being from Ajax once, he seemed to have taken a slant towards selecting players from his own club. Slant, in this context, is a severe understatement. Half of his outfield eleven came from ajax and AZ. OMFG. I mean, yes huntelaar and babel is good, they are promising but to replace van Nistelrooy, the fox in the box and the man the Netherlands desperately need to find the target is holy crap. Huntelaar didn't even get close to the goalbox mind you. He benched roy makaay and put on babel in the starting lineup. I mean WTF?!! If Makaay is undergoing a rough patch, then maybe i'll understand his reasons for benching him. BUT HEY, he scored the champions league fastest goal and is terrorising defences with his off the ball running even when he is not scoring, so HOW IN HELL DID YOU COME TO THE CONCLUSION OF BENCHING HIM? For rebuilding the squad and injecting new vigour? You may never get to see your fruits of labour Marco, cos you probably will be sent packing if the netherlands did not qualify.

So how is this the problem for Steve McClaren? Oh, he bested them all. He pwn3d us all. He slotted in dave nugent from preston as a substitute instead of defoe. Dave Nugent. Do you know who he is, people? I bet half the ppl in my country have never heard of this chap prior to the announcement of the lineup. He is good, but ultimately championship material. Why is he getting the cap and Defoe not even making it to the team? Just because he is on a good run in Preston? Mind you, he is a god**** premiership reject, and how in hell do you expect him to carry the responsibility of scoring goals for England?

Secondly, if you had already realised before, McClaren likes to pick players from the Big Four. Sure they are quality players, but can they gel? Gerrard and Lampard can't play together in midfield, so the solution is to exile Gerrard to the right? NO! My god, i will never believe that he actually has a UEFA coaching license. Southgate is better than him, and he's unqualified. As i always say, a good team can never have 11 world class players. What a team needs is a backbone, a group of key players that enforces tactical discipline and dictate tempo. A good manager builds a team around key players, players like Terry or Gerrard or Totti or Henry. Having key players stabilises your team and hastens the process of gelling with one another. Why is this so? This is because world class players bring with them an unbelieveable amount of self confidence and ego, and sometimes these egos conflict with one another. Having 11 top notch players will result in discordance, because each of them will be self absorbed in displaying individual brillances and not seeing the big picture. This is why i denounced the Galacticos system, and this is precisely the reason why Real Madrid winning La Liga is like a quest for the golden fleece. If you look at Man U you will see that they build the team around C.Ronaldo and Rooney, as well as a solid defensive pairing of Ferdinand and Vidic. You don't see them selling park ji sung or Fletcher and bringing in valon behrami or messi. Too many cooks spoil the broth and it applies here too. Back to the Lampard-Gerrard issue, if you can't play both, then rotate! Putting Gerrard on the right and Lennon on the left doesn't solve the problem, you're just putting square pegs in round holes. Looking beyond the big four there are other left wing alternatives, albeit not as good. But as i said, you can't have 11 top notch players, so having an average left winger isn't a problem at all. Barry is a good option, and so is Downing. Managers should not have prejudices or preference over any player, and the best way to go round this problem is to have a foreign coach come in and select the team. If England had kidnapped Guus Hiddink to London, England might have been cruising in their group now. Choosing players from the Big Four isn't always the solution to things, sometimes the troubles will just compound.

Having said so much, i really don't think McClaren is any better than his predecessor. Too many mistakes, too many sloppy appearances. If England slips again when they meet Andorra, this may spell the end of national football in England and the heralding of the new era of club football as proposed by Wenger and Mourinho.

I'm almost done with Anatomy of a Winner by Patrick Barclay. I personally recommend all my FM buddies to read it cos it helps a lot, at least it helped me. I will summerise the key notes and hopefully post it on the next post. Until then...

johannkrizalid blogged @ 12:39 PM

Well i meant this to be another blog bout soccer, and sometimes on my thoughts on certain things in life. This perhaps is a continuation to my old blog justgivethetitletochelsea.blogspot.com, which barely lasted a month and 3 posts be4 it was hacked and deleted. Well, the past is past and we shall not talk bout it anymore.

Why the name fourtwothreeone? As everyone who's known me well knows, i've always advocated this tactical system and championed it. Why? Because according to my own postulated theory of evolution of soccer tactics, i believe that eventually all soccer tactics converges upon these two mainstream tactical layouts, namely the 4-4-2 and the 4-2-3-1. 4-2-3-1 is a highly demanding tactic because it requires a team to have two very skilful wingers as well as a prolific striker. That said, it provides depth in midfield as well as width on the flanks. Sitting the playmaker directly behind the striker allows backup as well as more firepower up front while being assured that there are two midfielders covering his back. Unfortunately, not many teams in the world have skilful wingers as these have indeed become a rare breed amongst new generation of soccer players. Playmakers who can split defenses with accurate passes and deadly long shots have also dwindled in numbers. As such, 4-2-3-1 is rarely seen deployed in teams nowadays except perhaps roma and barcelona(before eto'o was out injured).
In the case of Roma's lineup against Lyon in the 2nd leg of the champions league, they deployed 4-2-3-1 to good use and with deep defending and creative wingplay, managed to put Lyon out of the champions league.

4-4-2 is another excellent tactical system. It allows good balance between defence, midfield and attack, due to the mobility and versatility of the two central midfielders. Often, proponents of fourfourtwo like sir alex ferguson will deploy an attacking mid and a defensive mid like carrick and scholes to dictate tempo and organise counterattacks. However, the real drawback of 4-4-2 comes from the two strikers up front. 4-4-2 requires both strikers to have telepathic abilities and to be familiar with each other's playing style. A mismatch will lead to disastrous results and breaks in momentum(like kuyt and bellamy in Aston Villa's home match against liverpool). This is a major flaw in 4-4-2, while the use of a lone striker in 4-2-3-1 eliminates that problem. 4-4-2 diamond in the case of Chelsea is a good formation provided the team has very established midfielders like makelele, but it suffers from a lack of width and places a lot of pressure on the wingbacks and central defenders.

Ok...i'm digressing too much. This is what happens when i talk football, i won't stop until someone tells me to STFU. Anyway, this blog serves 2 purpose. 1) this blog will serve as my scouting database, so if managers of FM wanted to know of good buys and bargain players you can visit my blog and check if there's an update. I set myself apart from FM sites in that i don't only include wonderkids in my listings but also BARGAIN buys for clubs outside the big four. 2) i will write about all the things that happened in my life, what i feel about certain issues and most importantly on issues involving soccer, cos i might consider being a soccer presenter/jounalist/analyst when i'm sick of whatever job i might be taking up in the future.(Basically, i kan the ESPN indian soccer presenter bu shuang very long liao, cos he likes to talk crap and i dun pay 20 bucks a mth to watch him talk trash on espn and football focus, so i decide to replace him sld i ever get the chance. he better not let me see him if not...) Anyway, this is about all i have to say. Next post: Why England is a perennial flop in european and world competitions and should McClaren abdicate in my favour as the new England manager?

johannkrizalid blogged @ 12:02 AM